Global Revisions Research Articles

Exploring EFL Learners’ Comments on Web-Based Peer Feedback: Local and Global Revisions

The purpose of this empirical study was to explore the interactional commenting patterns that EFL learners produced in web-based peer feedback and correlate them with the learners’ writing achievement. The study employed a quasi-experimental design built on the Theory of Cognitive Apprenticeship (Collins, 1991), which gives emphasis on coaching (local revision) and scaffolding (global revision) processes. The context of the study was in a public university in Oman and 50 participants were involved in a selected range of online peer-feedback processes, synchronously and asynchronously. A paired samples t-test showed that students were able to improve their grammar range and accuracy in writing essays more than other scaling categories (e.g. content and organization). The results of the qualitative analysis indicated that students produced far more comments synchronously than asynchronously, and most of the students’ exchanges were on forms. The findings of this study could be a practical reference for those who plan to cultivate the use of technology in peer feedback practice. 

Computer-mediated and face-to-face peer feedback: student feedback and revision in EFL writing

This study investigates how two feedback forms and sequences influence peer feedback and revision. The two feedback forms included: written asynchronous computer-mediated communication (hereafter WACMC) in Google Docs and traditional oral face-to-face interaction (hereafter OF2F). These two forms were used in two sequences: WACMC followed by OF2F (WACMC–OF2F) and OF2F followed by WACMC (OF2F–WACMC). Participants were twenty-six Vietnamese EFL students. After feedback training, students completed four writing tasks, provided feedback in pairs, and finally revised their work. This study employed a mixed-method approach. Written and oral feedback, student revision, as well as student interviews were collected, transcribed, coded, and analysed. Paired-samples t-tests and ANOVA tests were employed to compare student feedback and revision in the two forms and sequences. The findings showed that: (1) more revision-oriented comments were associated with the WACMC form and with the WACMC–OF2F sequence; (2) written comments had a higher uptake rate in both sequences; (3) global revisions were more often found in the WACMC–OF2F sequence; (4) while students perceived WACMC feedback in Google Docs as more helpful than OF2F feedback, most suggested using both feedback forms. Pedagogical implications for the L2 writing class will also be included.

NEW FORMS OF ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES PRESENTATION AS INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGE: CLASSIFICATION PROBLEMS

The article analyzes the dynamics of the forms of presentation of biographies of Ukrainian cultural icons. It has become evident in the Ukrainian cultural environment recently. It is noted that modern Ukrainian culture overcomes Soviet matrices and cliches of its key figures’ apprehension (such as Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Lesya Ukrainka). On the other hand,it tends to expand the boundaries and character ranks of its cultural pantheonsignificantly. This is important for the formation of a post-totalitarian Ukrainian identity; therefore,itrequires new scientific approaches, analytical work, systematizations and classifications. On the way of global revisions of the forms of presentation of nationally significant personal cultural experience, global transgressions of modern culture are important, which confidently moves from atomic facts and trends to systems and corpus texts presented as open and structured constructs with a complex system of internal connections. Formats of biographical worlds, dialogism, interactivity, multimedia and audience coverage are also importantfor modern presentationas it contributes to intensive artistic and marketing searches and the crystallization of intellectual potential into self-sufficient projects capable of organizing new force fields around themselves and generating new meanings.The author's classification of forms of presentation of biographies of cultural figures is suggested. It featuresnot only the trends in Ukrainian literature, but also in the related to it humanitarian segments of the present day. The latter include publishing, radio, cinema, Internet technologies, the sphere of cultural industries. Each point of the classification is illustrated by the facts of modern Ukrainian culture whichappeared, with rare exceptions, over the past three years. The classification demonstrates significant shifts in the development of new presentation formatsfrom biographical works created and published in traditional text booksand to digital world formats that are not universal, but specialist specific. The present-day culture generates interactive multimedia formats to meet the demands of the mass recipient.

World Economic Prospects

Overview: Global revisions to potential growth Our world GDP growth forecasts are unchanged this month at 2.2% for 2016, which would be the lowest since 2009, and 2.6% in 2017. Short‐term activity indicators have been mixed. The global PMI rose to an eight‐month high in September, but growth remains subdued compared with its long‐term average. In addition, other high‐frequency data such as the Citigroup economic surprise indices have been trending down since August. Indicators of international trade continue to show signs of weakness: the volume of world trade fell 1.1% on the year in July and was flat in the seven months to July. That said, the latest data for some countries show a pick‐up in trade volumes in August, particularly in Asia. The recent shift in monetary policy in Japan means that we now see yields on 10‐year Japanese bonds capped at 0% until 2020. We have lowered our forecast for GDP growth in the US in 2017 from 2.3% to 2% given weaker momentum in the private sector, particularly consumption and investment. Activity in the UK continues to surprise to the upside, therefore supporting our above‐consensus call on UK growth (1.9% this year and 1.2% in 2017). But sterling is bearing the brunt of the adjustment, falling to new lows against most major currencies. This has led us to revise our end‐year GBP forecasts to 1.25 to the US$ and 1.12 to the euro (from 1.28 and 1.19 last month). This month we have reviewed our long‐term forecasts. A weaker outlook for capital accumulation and productivity growth means the Eurozone and the UK have seen their potential growth cut by 0.2% a year over the next decade. In Japan, Abe's policies should alleviate the worst of the demographics slowdown, but this still results in potential growth of only 0.4% a year. Lower growth in the Eurozone and the UK has consequences for interest rates as well. We now do not expect the ECB to start raising the refinancing rate until early‐2020, and see it peaking at 2.75% in 2028 (versus 3% in 2025 previously). In the UK, the BoE terminal rate has been cut to 3.5% (from 3.75%). Also, our expected path for 10‐year bond yields has flattened significantly in most Eurozone countries.

Transforming and constructing academic knowledge through online peer feedback in summary writing

Recognizing that graduate students seldom have the opportunity to participate collaboratively, either in providing or receiving feedback to improve their academic writing skills, this study reports on the design of a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) system used to investigate how graduate students transform and construct their academic knowledge through peer feedback when involved in summary writing. A sample of 24 graduate students who studied English as a foreign language was grouped into experimental and control groups, 13 and 11 graduate students in each group. The results of this study reveal that integrating the three key elements of a CSCL system facilitated improvement in the experimental group's summary writing. These key elements included (1) acquiring a basic understanding of main ideas by requesting keywords as scaffolds, (2) explicitly observing more proficient peers' writing processes when providing and receiving peer feedback (knowledge transformation), and (3) solving writing problems by revising their own summaries following peer feedback (knowledge construction). Based on the three key elements, the graduate students in the experimental group made more local (i.e., grammatical) and global revisions (i.e., text development, organization, and style) on their own as well as their peers’ summaries, compared with the graduate students in the control group. The effectiveness of online peer feedback on summary writing, in transforming and constructing academic knowledge, is further discussed in this study.

A comparison of the 1889 and the revised 1903 edition of Somerville and Ross's first novel, An Irish Cousin

In 1903, after the publication of the second volume of the Irish R.M. stories, Edith Œ. Somerville and Martin Ross revised and republished their first novel, An Irish Cousin (1889), under its original name. They reduced it from two volumes to one, made global revisions to the plot, and edited it at the word and sentence level. More interestingly, they modified the representation of the main Irish protagonists of the gothic plot, both landlords and tenants. To date, no extensive comparison between the two editions exists. The 1889 edition is rare, so commentators have relied on the 1903 edition even though they often cite the social context of the first edition. This article compares the two editions and provides explanations for the revisions, examining the authors’ personal and professional reasons for these changes voiced in their published and unpublished letters and diaries within the cultural, social, and political context of the period. The comparison briefly considers the implications of these changes for theorists of the Irish Gothic.

Revising writing in an online learning environment

The screen of the computer provides good practice for the writing process and functions as an exemplar for it since what is being written is not permanent in contrast to writing with pen on paper. The following research questions were addressed to explore the area and were investigated through the data: 1) Do students revise their writing globally or on the surface? 2) Do students co-operate or collaborate to edit their produced text? This paper will report the results from data taken from tertiary EFL students writing collaboratively and/ or co-operatively in a wiki to complete a task. This paper focuses on the revisions and editing university students did to their text while completing a group task in a wiki for the purposes of an upper-intermediate to advance English language course. The methodology that lies behind the research is grounded theory. The research conducted is qualitative and as such the data is collected from the wiki and the history pages which kept track of the students work in the wiki. An attempt is made to distinguish between superficial and global revisions the students performed. Emphasis is given to the frequency with which the students entered the wiki to edit, and the quality of the revisions to their work. From the data we can also draw conclusions as to whether the students collaborated or co-operated to edit their work. The discussion will round off with implications for future research and offer suggestions about how EFL students from the specific and similar contexts could be encouraged to revise in order to write better.

A reciprocal peer review system to support college students' writing

AbstractAs students' problem‐solving processes in writing are rarely observed in face‐to‐face instruction, they have few opportunities to participate collaboratively in peer review to improve their texts. This study reports the design of a reciprocal peer review system for students to observe and learn from each other when writing. A sample of 95 undergraduate students was recruited to construct texts with the support of web‐based reciprocal peer review in the processes of modelling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection and exploration. The results of the study revealed that these six processes helped students externalise and visualise their internal writing processes so that they could observe and learn from peers in writing as well as support peers in making text revisions. During their extensive and reciprocal interactions with various peers, students addressed mutual concerns in each other's text revisions. They constructed collaborative language knowledge for text improvement as local revisions (grammatical corrections) and global revisions (corrections on the development, organization or style of a text) were made in their final texts. The students' perceptions towards text improvement in this web‐based peer review of modelling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection and exploration are also discussed in this study.

Emerging discourse structure: computer-assisted episode analysis as a window to global revision in university students' writing

This article studies global aspects of text production by following 10 student writers' steps in revising their texts. The method used is based on the analysis of connected episodes of revisions in recorded writing sessions. The sessions were represented in S-notation, which is a computer-generated notation for revisions created from a keystroke record. Using S-notation to identify revision episodes, a classification was made of the types of global revisions encountered in four of the students' writing sessions. The results suggest that the nature of the writing task has a major influence on the writer's strategy and that the computer medium also plays an important role as a facilitator. To a great extent, the discourse structure of texts evolved gradually through writing and revising, apparently as a result of problem-solving activity. The study has confirmed that computer-assisted episode analysis provides a promising approach to the study of text production, which opens a window to the writers' development of discourse structure.

Better revision in eight minutes? Prompting first-year college writers to revise globally.

Two experiments examined the relation between revision and task definition among college students in writing courses. In Experiment 1, students prompted to make global revisions to their drafts of college application letters improved their drafts more than students not prompted to make global revisions. Results of Experiment 1 extended results of D. L. Wallace and J. R. Hayes (1991), who found the same effect for students revising text they had not written. In Experiment 2, the treatment did not improve revisions by college students (identified as measured by low SAT verbal scores) who completed the same writing task. Together, results of these 2 experiments suggest that the prompt to revise globally may be effective in helping entry-level college writing students improve their texts (the prompt seems to have encouraged them to make better revisions) but that it is not effective in helping basic-level college writing students revise.

Individual and cooperative computer-writing and revising: Who gets the best results?

Draft and revised computer-written narratives were produced by IV grade children in each of three writing conditions: I/I — individual/individual, i.e. the child wrote and revised his/her narrative individually; I/D — individual/dyad, the child wrote a text individually but revised it together with another child; D/D — dyad/dyad: two children wrote and then revised a text. A set of repeated measures analyses of variance showed that children's revised narratives had more original and well-organized contents, described better story protagonists, used a more sophisticated language, contained fewer mistakes of various kinds and exhibited greater grammatical complexity than first drafts. The greatest changes from draft to revision occurred in the I/D condition; the greatest change within drafts occurred between the two individual drafts. Learning effects and effects due to cooperative writing were observed for a few parameters of text quality. The study shows that children, especially when they revise their text with a peer, are able to carry out both local and more global revisions and can do so even without explicit training.

Redefining Revision for Freshmen

This study investigates the impact of task definition on students’ revising strategies. Our primary aim was to determine if freshman students could revise globally if instructed to do so and if those global revisions would result in improved texts. We asked two groups of freshmen to revise a text provided by the experimenters; one group was given eight minutes of instruction on how to revise globally, and the other was simply asked to make the text better. The texts written by students who received the instruction were judged both to be of significantly better quality and to have included significantly more global revision. Further, the improvement appears to affect the treated population generally rather than just a small part of that population.

The genus Rhizophora (Rhizophoraceae) in north-eastern Australia

Recent global revisions have failed to resolve difficulties in identification of the Australian Rhizophora. Presented is a field key and detailed specific descriptions of the four species found in the north-east. Classificatory analyses revealed the distinct nature of the entities and some of their associations with each other.